Van Werven invests in new plastic recycling line in Dublin

The Van Werven Plastic Recycling site in Dublin (Ireland) has been expanded with an automatic washing, sorting and grinding line. The line started at the beginning of March. The first load of secondary raw materials has now been sold to our customer.

In November 2017, Van Werven started sorting hard plastics in Ireland. The further recycling process then took place in Biddinghuizen. In particular, the incoming volume grew rapidly in the second half of 2018. Large enough to be able to invest in an installation that further processes the sorted polyolefins (PE and PP) into a secondary raw material. The new line was built with the latest innovations and experiences with the recycling lines at other Van Werven locations. The Irish site has now become a fully-fledged recycling site. The new recycling line has a capacity of 15 million kilos of plastics per year. The Dublin site provides employment for twenty-five employees.

Potential customers

Managing director Ton van der Giessen: “In addition to searching for input volume, work was also done last year on selling secondary raw materials in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Several potential customers have received deliveries from the Netherlands to learn to work with our end products as a substitute for primary raw material. These customers can now be supplied directly from our Irish site."

Growth strategy

Expansion in Ireland is part of the Van Werven growth strategy within the EU. In January this year, the site in Sweden started sorting hard plastics. The next expansion will take place in Poland where Van Werven is currently building two recycling lines that will be operational in May.